This is the last chapter. It's going to be really hard to end this story, because I've really enjoyed all the reviews and support I got for it. It will probably be quite abstract. I'm getting too vague for my liking. Hopefully, you'll be able to read between the lines. Metaphorically speaking, because there isn't anything between the damn lines anyway. The italics are some song lyrics from 'Absolution' the new album from Muse (except for the last one, it's from 'Origin of Symmetry', also Muse). JKR, please don't sue me. That goes for you too Matt Bellamy.

"Lips are turning blue

A kiss that can't renew

I only dream of you

My beautiful."

A flash of light and it was over. A cry of death and the green luminescence swept over her. Sensing rather than feeling her body hit the hard ground, she lay and listened to her last moments of life. Harry was screaming. Her remaining senses screamed also for her to save him, rescue him from the evil hanging foully in the air.

"To be endlessly cold and dreaming I'm alive"

A hand rested lightly on hers. The surgical cleanness surrounding her smelt bitter and noxious. She felt a voice talk quietly in her ear. One side of the pillow her head rested on dipped. Warm breath skittered over her face. He was still talking. He kept sniffing and choking, and soon she realised he was crying and begging, pleading with her to live and stay for him. She wanted to, and her body tensed slightly as she fought the inevitable lapse of consciousness.

"I know you're in this room, I'm sure I heard you sigh

Floating in between where our worlds collide."

It was a warm, hazy day in June. The class was restless, and Daniel was trying her best to settle them for the lesson. Heavily pregnant, it was a struggle to stand up these days, never mind dealing with obnoxious teenagers. Adopting a cane to point at diagrams and incantations on the board, she spoke at length on the importance of a responsible attitude towards using Dark material. Then, a funny sort of spasm occurred in her belly, and she felt warm wetness trickling down her legs and splattering on the floor. Stretchered immediately to the Hospital Wing, a Midwife from St. Mungo's flooed in and began the long and arduous process of birthing. Seven hours and 5 tantrums later, all 10lb 5oz of Severus Snape entered the world.

"Fights and battles have begun

Revenge will surely come

Your hard times are ahead."

The new boyfriend. Naturally, Severus was jealous of the attention diverted away from him. At 6 years old, he had cultivated a mass of shoulder length hair that he kept flicking out of his eyes as he made horrendous concoctions out of anything he found in the kitchen. The boyfriend, Matthew, a bulk of muscle and temperamental anger, was decidedly cold towards him. Never in front of Daniel, of course, but whenever Matthew was alone with Severus, total unacknowledgement of his presence usually suited him fine.

Arriving home from some shopping, after a minor delay with the floo network, Daniel was greeted with the scattered debris of a mug and a bit of a damp stain on the carpet. Cleaning it up in a heartbeat, she walked on through to the kitchen, where Matthew was scrubbing at his trousers with a damp cloth.

"What are you doing?" she asked, surprised at the painstaking way in which he decided to clean his trousers.

"Your son knocked over my cup onto my good trousers." He snarled, looking carefully for signs of staining.

"He's just a kid." She answered, controlling the minor surge of panic that bubbled in her stomach.

"He shouldn't be so clumsy." was the reply she got.

"Where is he?" she queried, trying to make it sound conversational.

"In his room."

Walking warily up the stairs, she turned the handle to his room. Entering and closing the door with a spell behind her, she went over and sat beside his prone form, curled up on the bed. The side of his face she could see in the half-light looked fine, but after coaxing and soft tones, she managed to turn his face around. The entire other side of his face was a purple-black bruise. When she let go of his chin, he burrowed the injury back into the pillow.

"I'll get rid of him." She whispered, trying to ignore his flinch when she touched his shoulder. Walking determinedly down the hallway, she met him coming out of the living room.

"Hey baby." He said huskily, striding forwards. He went to put him arms around her, but she punched him in the gut, and when he bent double, kneed him under the chin. He rose quicker than she expected. Slamming a ham-sized fist into her face, he was on top of her in a flash as her skull rattled and she fell.

"Just what the fuck do you think you're doing?" he hissed in her face, one of his hands holding both of hers and his other poised above her chest.

"You hit him." She spat, her head feeling increasingly swollen.

"Little brat was asking for it." He growled, pummeling her chest with full-blown punches. By the end of it, it was all she could do to lie there, bleeding and screaming at him. She couldn't hit him. Her arms were broken. Breathing was agony. She stopped, inhaling only to holler obscenities at him. He had hit her yesterday. They were rowing over something. Severus stood and watched and finally burst into tears when Matthew slapped her. He was brave. He stood his ground and yelled at him, saying that the Ministry of Magic would have him locked up, and that he'd rot in Azkaban, which was fine by him. Matthew had let it go, but Daniel had not. She talked to him that night, but begged him not to anger Matthew further. She now knew the kind of person Matthew was, and she vowed to rid herself and her son of his presence.

Weighted bodies take years to find.

"This is the last time I'll abandon you"

Severus' father was a man named James. Handsome, intelligent,

a Wizard, a very powerful one too, but no sense of priority.

A brief fling, and then they parted ways. The last she heard the early Death Eaters killed him.

"So I'll love whatever you've become…

I think our lives have just begun."

"Ha ha! I won!" Severus shouted, holding his tennis racket above his head. Alexander picked up the ball and fired it back at him. Grinning broadly, the two of them competed moronically for most of the afternoon.

Collapsing into a chair in the shade, Severus swallowed an entire glass of water, and then poured another over his head. Alexander did the same, and then threw one over Severus. Glaring at him, Severus glanced briefly at Daniel, who ignored them and continued reading her book.

Getting up, Severus gently pulled Alexander's hair, leading him into the house. Deciding that they were in need of mature supervision, Daniel followed reluctantly, thinking of stains on furniture and how to ease carpet burns.

The door to the indoor pool was open, and she heard laughing and splashing. Peering in through the door carefully, in case delicate eyes disagreed with the activities going on, she was relieved to find they were only trying to drown each other in the shallow end of the pool. Neither of them could swim without a lifejacket to make sure they wouldn't sink like a brick.

Sitting on the edge of the pool, feet dangling into the cool water, she watched them revert to small children again, giggling and shrieking and happier than she'd ever seen them.

"Are you going to join us Mrs. Snape?" called Alexander, and Severus laughed at his inaccurate politeness.  She shook her head.

Picking up their robes from the damp floor, Daniel set them on a chair by the door and walked back outside.

"For all the life that you'll lose

And you watch this space

And I'm going all the way."

The ceiling of the Hospital Wing blurred into focus. Someone was shouting. Shrieking about someone being back. There was a warm, heavy weight at the end of her bed. Her head felt like someone filed it with cement. A few stray hairs lay across her face. The tickling was almost unbearable. A hand brushed them away. She turned her head towards the owner of the hand. Alex. He smiled weakly at her, his eyes slightly bloodshot. The weight at the end of the bed was lifted. There was no noise anymore. Then there was a pop and her hand was immediately clasped tightly in someone else's.

"How long has she been awake?" hissed a voice above her head.

"A few seconds." Answered Alexander. "Leave her be, she's probably tired." The person ignored Alexander, and she looked round at Sirius. He smiled broadly, eyes watery and hair ruffled.

"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly, holding her hand very tight. She tried to answer him, but her throat felt dry and she needed a drink. He must have guessed, because he reached into a cupboard and pulled out a glass with a straw in it. Setting it on the table, he then made an incision in a bag of O- blood and squeezed it into the glass. Daniel shifted herself up the pillows a bit, resting her head on the back of the bed. Looking slightly surprised, Sirius handed her the drink carefully. It wasn't too heavy. Removing the straw, she gave him a reproachful look, and drained the glass.

He grinned at her, and placed the glass back inside the cupboard, for someone else to clean.

"What happened?" she asked, looking over at Harry, fast asleep.

"The cup was a portkey to a Death Eater gathering." He said heavily. "Voldemort has returned." He let this sink in. She stared at the white sheets on the bed opposite. He stared anxiously at her face, trying to imagine what she was thinking.

"Where's Severus?" Daniel asked, ignoring the look of revulsion on Sirius's face.

"Dunno." He answered stubbornly.

"I want to see him." She pressed on, knowing Sirius would comply begrudgingly and go get him. He got up and exited the ward, looking slightly unappreciated. Smiling faintly, she settled back down into the insulating bedsheets.

"Staying awake to chase a dream

Tasting the air you're breathing in

I know I won't forget a thing."

The door to the Hospital flew open and slammed on the wall behind it. Before she could get up, suffocating warmth had latched onto her.

"You're going to choke her." Said a muffled voice, and Severus was peeled off her by a placid looking Alexander. Sirius sat on the other side of her, a look on his face that could sour milk.

"I thought you were dead." Severus gasped, looking very pale.

"I am." She replied, grinning at him.

"You know what I mean." He snickered, his eyes flicking briefly towards Sirius.

"How come I'm not really, properly dead then?" she asked, wondering why it hadn't occurred to her before.

"It's impossible to kill something that's already dead." Sirius answered moodily.

"Or so says our resident necrophiliac." Giggled Alexander.

"Shut up." Snapped Sirius.

"Piss off." Hissed Severus, a muscle in his jaw twitching.

"Make me." Growled Sirius, standing up.

Severus looked as though he would really love to, but Daniel coughed pointedly and they shot each other murderous looks and sat back down instead.

There was a brief silence.

"How's Harry?" she asked.

"Fine."  Answered Alexander. "Bit freaked out, understandably, but he should be o.k."

"What about the other two?" she pressed on, "Fleur and Krum?"

Alexander and Severus exchanged glances.

"Both dead." Snapped Sirius, staring childishly at the floor.

"What happened?" Daniel asked.

"You killed Fleur, and Krum got eaten by a Skrewt." He elaborated, running a hand through his hair. Looking a bit repulsed, he wiped his hand on his robes, leaving a grimy stain.

"I haven't washed in a while." He explained, noticing the looks he was getting.

Daniel's remaining days at Hogwarts were spent clearing jars of slimy things into padded boxes. Alexander worked with her, while Severus marked essays and sneered at them.

Arriving back home, all of the boxes and crates were put in the basement, then Severus and Alexander made up some pathetic excuse about seeing if everything upstairs was all right, before sprinting up the stairs and straight into their bedroom.

"It's a new dawn

It's a new day

It's a new life

For me,

And I'm feeling good."

Meandering through the halls to her own bedroom, she passed a locked door, behind which bed springs were squeaking like mad, and occasional shrieks filtered through.

Opening her own door, greeted with familiar trinkets from all over the world, and a wonky clay pot Severus had made for her when he was about three, she settled herself on the bed, and mused on how damn good it felt to be home.

Xanadan